There are many times when I am riding in the car or a bus and I spot a homeless person standing at the corner or at a crosswalk, holding a sign that asks for money or food or clothes, sometimes even for a blanket. I had always wondered what I would be like to give those people what their signs ask for, but every time I was met with the chance to give one of them something, I never actually had anything on me at that moment or even have a way to give it to them.
Until one day a chance was given to me. I was riding with my mom and we were just coming back from a sports restaurant. Warming my lap was a carton of leftovers; what was left of my food. We weren’t that far from the restaurant and we were stopped in line at a red light, waiting for it to turn green again and out of the corner of my eye, I spot movement. I turned my head and there I saw him, a man covered in ragged clothes and holding a sign asking for food, coats and blankets.
Seeing him triggered my memory of how I’ve always wanted to give a homeless person a gift, to help them in some small way. My heart raced at the thought of helping him.
I remember turning to my mom and motioned to the man after I had gotten her attention, and I’d asked if I could give him my food. I knew it was likely that I wouldn’t eat it and either it would go to waste or my father would eat it instead, so I had thought that the man would need it more than me. I pointed that out to my mother.
She gave me the OK, saying that it was my food and I could give it away if I wanted to.
Instantly I rolled down my window and called for the man. At the time he had just been given a dollar bill and was waling back towards the sidewalk when he heard my calls and turned to me. I remember smiling at him and holding my food out to show him what I had for him. His face seemed to light up and he hurriedly walked to me.
When he took it out of my hands, I remember him smiling at me and he thanked me. It was close to Valentines day – I remember because he had also wished me “Happy Valentines Day” before he returned to his post at the light. My heart was filled with an emotion I had never felt before, I don’t even know what to call it, but it made me feel very warm and light, like I could float to the sky.
By then the light was green and the cars in front of us were moving. I had a big smile on my face and as my mom drove past the man, I remember watching him place the food I’d given him into his backpack. That feeling in my chest lasted for the rest of the day, and I can still remember what happened that day, even though it was almost three years ago.
What kind of event have you done, where you helped someone and felt a sense of accomplishment, or enlightenment?
~Angelus Mortis